“There are two Christianities in our midst. One worships a punitive father and seeks obedience at all costs. It is patriarchal, demonizes woman, the earth, science, gays, lesbians, and deep thought. It builds on fear and it supports empire-builders. Its theology includes a punitive father in the sky and teaches original sin. The other Christianity recognizes the original blessing that all beings derive from. We recognize awe, not sin, not guilt, as the starting point of true religion. We recognize a divinity who is source of all things and is as much mother as father, as much female as male. We honor creation and diversity. When God created everything, He pronounced it all good.

"We are here to make love to life. Yes, we are here to make love to life. Delight in creation and take your dreams into our politics and institutions. We live in the midst of a suicidal economy, motivated by love of money. We have reached a dead end. What we need to turn it around are hearts in love with life. How do we do it? We first must move from domination to partnership, and we begin by educating our young in awe and wonder, not how to take tests. Awe leads to reverence, which leads to gratitude, which will reinvent our species. This is the task of our generation: to regain awe. The three Rs need to be balanced by the ten Cs: contemplation, creativity, chaos, compassion, courage, critical consciousness, community, celebration, ceremony, and character." --Matthew Fox

Jolly, writing for the majority, said that the original purpose of honoring Mosher was secular, but that purpose was changed in 1995 when [former State District Judge] Devine and [his court reporter] Friend placed a neon light inside the monument to outline the Bible.

Devine had campaigned on a platform of putting Christianity back into government and had Christian ministers lead prayers at the rededication ceremony for the monument, the opinion said. (emphasis mine)

When you as good as say that you're erecting a religious monument with government money, don't be surprised when you get slapped down on Constitutional grounds... by two Republican judges, yet. It also occurs to me to wonder why Devine isn't in office any more. Did he die, or retire, or was he perhaps removed for malfeasance after pulling this kind of shit on a legal case?

I almost hope they do appeal straight to the Supreme Court. This is such an open-and-shut violation that I doubt they'd even get cert unless the justices specifically wanted to issue a ruling which would set a firm precedent that it's unacceptable.